Book excerpt: What is the "Asian American experience"? What role does gender play within that experience? How do race and economics factor in? Asian American women and men answers these questions and examines how Asian American culture is shaped by a variety of forces. This groundbreaking volume in the new Gender lens series is among the first to explore the Asian experience from a gendered perspective. Author Yen Le Espiritu documents how the historical and contemporary oppression of Asian Americans has structured gender relationships among them and has contributed to the creation of social institutions and systems of meaning. In so doing, she illustrates how race, class, and gender do not merely run parallel to each another, but rather intersect and confirm one another. Some of the topics discussed include Asian Americans and immigration, labor recruitment, education, relationships, and stereotypes. Asian American women and men has an exceptionally broad audience including students and professionals in gender studies, Asian American studies, race and ethnicity studies, sociology, political science, anthropology, and American studies.